


Anemoia

by decay



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: (mostly), (on the KHR end), Canon Compliant, Crack Treated Seriously, Crossover, Future Fic, Gen, Minor Original Character(s), Other, Spoilers, Time Travel, Tsuna's Hyper Intuition might as well be its own character, more like time travel gone wrong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-05-21 14:41:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14917260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decay/pseuds/decay
Summary: Tsuna’s first thought when he woke up to a white hospital room and the beeping of machines was“at least I’m not in a coffin this time.”“… What?”Oh. He’d said that out loud. Reborn would’ve shot him if he’d been there.





	1. Interference

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Duality](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11623923) by [wroth_and_ruin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wroth_and_ruin/pseuds/wroth_and_ruin). 



> Hiya! First, I want to give a big thank you to wroth_and_ruin – their fic “Duality” inspired this whole thing, and they were incredibly nice to chat with!! Go read their fic if you like this crossover! :D
> 
> Secondly, I’m messing around with the timeline a little. This is set after the KHR manga canon – sometime halfway through Tsuna’s first year of high school (which I think ends up being a year and a half after canon but I could be wrong). It’s also technically set after the culture festival in BNHA – this means that there may be some manga spoilers, though it’s mostly class 1-A centric so Eri and the third years might not even show up. Who knows at this point. :’)
> 
> I have a bias towards certain pairings. I’m sorry. There will probably be hints of/background relationships at some point, but they should be pretty easy to ignore. (I'm also still trying to figure out how to tag, so expect the tags to change regularly!)
> 
> Also, I’m flying by the seat of my pants – I haven’t written anything for KHR in ages and this is my first BNHA fic so, uh … here we go!

Tsunayoshi Sawada wasn’t stupid.

Sure, he had his moments – but he liked to think that a year and a half after the representative battles, he’d grown a bit. He’d made it through middle school, after all. And, sure, he still flinched at loud noises, got chased by dogs, and got picked on when Gokudera and Yamamoto weren’t around … and his test scores _still just barely_ made it over the passing line, but even so, no one could argue that he wasn’t capable when he put his mind to it.

He wasn’t _stupid,_ but there were times when he wondered.

Tsuna’s Hyper Intuition was never wrong, and as he grew and fought more, it had become even stronger. It was his sixth, infallible sense, and bad things happened whenever he ignored it. But when he stopped by the half-built underground Vongola base in Namimori, one that he’d agreed to rather easily, seeing as he’d lived there in the future, he heard the tell-tale signs of metal-on-metal followed by familiar voices. _Turn around,_ his Hyper Intuition told him, flaring up suddenly. Tsuna paused at the doorway, but before he could move the door opened automatically.

“Oh, it’s Sawada,” Spanner said blandly, waving the stick of his lollipop up and down in his mouth in lieu of a real wave. His hands were covered in grease and currently holding some pieces of machinery together while Shouichi muttered something and screwed the pieces together, stepping back a moment later.

“U-um,” Tsuna began, eyeing the squares of white machinery set up on the wall in a vague circular shape, “hi?” 

Spanner stood up once the machinery was screwed in place, then elbowed Shouichi, who finally seemed to notice Tsuna. The redhead jumped, pushing up his glasses hastily and leaving a smudge of grease over his cheek. “O-oh! Good timing, we just finished,” he said, wiping his hands against his already stained jeans.

“Finished?” Tsuna echoed, staring at the white pieces of … whatever it was. He felt uneasy when he looked at it, and he shuffled his feet against the floor in an effort to get rid of his Hyper Intuition’s nagging that he needed to leave _now._ Whatever it was, it would be rude to leave Shouichi and Spanner so quickly – and if there was danger, he’d want to protect them anyway. Uncomfortable remnants of memories from the Choice battle stirred in his stomach.

“Yeah,” Shouichi nodded and gestured to the machine they were working on. “It’s far from finished, but you remember this, right?”

Tsuna frowned and took a step forward into the room. His Hyper Intuition flared again. “Um … no? Maybe? It … it looks familiar?”

“It’s not done yet, but it’s the time machine,” Spanner chimed in helpfully, wiping his own hands on his pants as he moved off to the side to fiddle with some tools. “From the future.”

“T-the _time machine?_ ” Tsuna asked incredulously, his voice rising a pitch as his eyes widened. “ _Why?_ ”

Shouichi scratched his head and averted his eyes, walking over to a computer set up on a counter and checking the screen. Despite his anxious demeanor, his voice was firm. “Lambo still uses the 10 Year Bazooka, and we all know that the future can be tampered with. So … what if … we need something to keep you and everyone else from disappearing again?” The room was quiet as Spanner kept working and Tsuna mulled his words over. “And I …” Shouichi coughed, and Tsuna noticed the way he brought his hand down to rest on his stomach and clutched at his t-shirt. “I, uh … you know, I lived through a lot of timelines … Or! I mean! I have the memories from them … and I, um, I don’t … don’t really want to do that again.”

“O-oh!” Tsuna said, bringing his hand up to scratch the back of his own head sheepishly as he glanced away. “I … I’m sorry. I should’ve realized that it’s important.”

“I-it’s fine,” Shouichi said, still looking at his computer screen. “I-I mean, it’s all been working out so f-“

“TENTH!” The door opened again and Gokudera all but ran into the room, stopping at Tsuna’s feet like a puppy. “Sorry I’m late! I didn’t really know where you were, so I – what is this?” 

Tsuna watched as Gokudera’s olive eyes narrowed and he took a half step in front of Tsuna, glaring at the incomplete time machine and the two other boys.

“I-it’s! Well,” Shouichi started, taking a step back as Gokudera’s glare landed on him, but stopped when his back hit the edge of the counter. “It’s the –“

“The time machine,” Gokudera finished for him icily, moving towards Shouichi, who shuffled his feet. “I can tell. We’re not going to the future again.”

“Relax,” Spanner drawled from the other side of the room, taking his lollipop out of his mouth and waving it lazily in the air, “we’re not going to do that. It’s a safety measure.”

“I-I have Reborn’s permission and everything,” Shouichi said, and it sounded more like a plea.

“S-stop, Gokudera-kun!” Tsuna darted forward and tugged on Gokudera’s arm, who let the smaller boy pull him back. “It’s okay. B-besides, if it comes down to it … I’d rather be able to keep everyone safe again.”

Gokudera’s eyes softened as he stared down at Tsuna, but he still shoved his hands into his pockets with a small _tch._ “If you say so.”

“Is this a bad time to tell you that we’re about to turn it on?” Spanner looked up from the device he was tinkering with and held up a rudimentary control panel. “Might wanna go if you don’t like it, but it’s not going to be very exciting. It’ll just make a small rip in the center of that circle, then we’ll turn it off.”

“No,” Gokudera said testily, narrowing his eyes and looking over Shouichi’s shoulder at the computer screen. “Turn it on. We might as well make sure it doesn’t explode.”

Shouichi and Spanner exchanged a look and a nod, and then before Tsuna could voice his concerns, they both pressed a button and the machine began to come to life. Sure enough, electricity sparked and drew to the center of the circle, gathering until a small point of light appeared. It was bright white, and some smoke leaked out of it.

“Uh,” Tsuna began nervously, “I think we should turn it off. I’m getting a bad feeli –“

With a gasp, he grabbed Shouichi and Gokudera’s arms and dragged them back a step and shouted for Spanner to do the same. From the center of the small rip came a black energy that grew into a shadowed claw, reaching out and tearing the hole wider. The wind picked up, and the machine crackled and sparked.

 _“What the hell!”_ Gokudera shouted over the noise of the machine, quickly activating his Systema C.A.I. and summoning the shields of Flames inside his Bone Loops to float in front of the machine, throwing an arm out in front of Tsuna, who squeaked.

“I-I can turn it off!” Shouichi nearly tripped as he darted back to the computer, frantically typing in commands and then sighing a moment later. But the machine didn’t stop, and he turned to look across the room. “Spanner?!”

“It’s off on my end!” Spanner shouted, clutching the control panel close and darting over to join them behind Gokudera’s shields.

“Is it off or not?!” Gokudera growled, grumbling something before activating another Box Weapon and attaching the Flame Arrow cannon to his arm. 

“It should be – _please don’t shoot the rip in space-time_ – but it’s still going!”

Tsuna shook himself – there was no time to be afraid of what was clearly a shadowy hand trying to claw its way out of the _rip in time_. He swallowed harshly then turned to Shouichi. “Where is the machine getting its power?”

Shouichi pointed to a box behind the machine, and Tsuna locked eyes with Gokudera, who nodded and shot one precise arrow at it. The box crackled and popped as Gokudera blew a hole into it, and as it smoked the machine looked like it was powering down. _But the hand was still coming._

“What is that?!” Tsuna braced himself against the still-strong wind, staring at the shadow hand that wasn’t ripping the hole open any more, but it seemed like it was keeping the hole from closing.

“I have no idea!” Shouichi said, and Spanner shrugged Tsuna’s other side. “It’s not from the machine!”

Then, the hand shot forward, shattering Gokudera’s Bone Loops like they were nothing, and Tsuna didn’t think. He shoved Spanner to one side, then used his whole body to shove Gokudera and Shouichi to the other.

“TENTH!” “Sawada!” “Tsunayoshi-kun!”

“Ah –“ Tsuna barely had time to register the hand gripping him tightly around the middle, its claws digging painfully into his torso. He felt the warmth of blood from the claws and the jolt in his stomach as the shadowy hand tugged him backwards and just barely saw the terrified faces of his friends, Gokudera lurching forward and trying to grab his hand, Storm Flames flaring behind him, and then –

White.

* * *

 

Tsuna’s first thought when he woke up to a white hospital room and the beeping of machines was _“at least I’m not in a coffin this time._ ”

“… What?”

Oh. He’d said that out loud. Reborn would’ve shot him if he’d been there.


	2. Scratching the Surface

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that I just posted the first chapter, but honestly, it was more like a prologue. So have another. :'D

It took Tsuna a few moments to blink away the haze of sleep and the blurriness from his eyes. It felt like he’d been hit by a truck, and honestly, that was par for the course by now. As he tried to move, a voice came from his side. “Careful, son.”

Of course, Tsuna whipped his head around way too quickly only to see a middle-aged woman in scrubs watching him worriedly, and his head throbbed. Reflexively flexing his fingers, he let himself relax when he felt the familiar weight of the rings on his right hand. “How lo – ” his voice cracked and his Intuition flared and his throat was _so dry_. He nodded in thanks as the nurse handed him a small cup of water, which he drank greedily. This time, he listened to his Intuition and changed his question. “Where am I?”

“Musutafu General Hospital,” the woman said gently, pouring him another cup of water without him asking.

“O-oh! Thank you,” Tsuna said sheepishly, taking the cup and drinking it slower this time. _Musutafu?_ He had no idea where that was, but with time traveling, he decided to roll with it. The nurse was still speaking Japanese, and the poster on the wall was in Japanese, so he was still in Japan. He could get back to Namimori somehow. Hell, he could blast his X-Burner back to Namimori if he really needed to. Probably. He paused, then asked the question he really wanted to know the answer to. “How long have I been here?”

The nurse gave him a bit of a strange look. “Six hours.” Shit. Much longer than five minutes. “How do you feel? I heard you got hit pretty hard by a Quirk.”

_Quirk?_ “I – I got hit by … um, what?”

The nurse’s frown deepened and she grabbed the clipboard at the end of his bed and wrote something on it. “What do you remember?” 

“Uhh …” Tsuna swallowed nervously, glancing around the room. He didn’t know where – or when – he was, and he certainly didn’t know this nurse. What could he tell her? Definitely not that he was in the mafia and also building a time machine. Putting it like that even sounded ridiculous to _him._ “A shadowy … hand … thing? I-it … yeah, it came out of nowhere … I’ve never, uh, I’ve never seen it before. It came at me and my, um, my friends and I guess it … grabbed me?”

He was starting to sweat as the nurse kept writing - he'd instinctively told her the truth - but she just nodded. “That matches up with the police report. And how do you feel?” Was she kidding? Tsuna was more used to people looking at him like he was out of his mind.

But he needed to stay in the moment and go with the flow until he knew more. That’s what Reborn would’ve told him. So Tsuna took a deep breath and took inventory of his body. He was sore as hell and exhausted, but not much worse than that. All in all, nothing beyond his normal level of pain. “Um? Fine, actually. I-I mean, sore. And tired. B-but, fine! Considering … uh …”

The nurse continued to fix him with a strange look, but moved on easily. “You had some scratches on your abdomen, which didn’t need more than some disinfectant and bandages. Are you up for some visitors?”

Tsuna blinked in surprise at the sudden question. _Not really._ His Intuition was telling him to be careful, but it didn’t seem like he had much of a choice, so he just nodded slowly.

“I’ll send them in.” The nurse took his chart outside the room and Tsuna could hear her talking quietly with a couple of other people before the door opened again. He noticed his gloves, wallet, phone, bottle of Dying Will pills, and case containing his headphones and contacts sitting on the bedside table, and his school bag on the ground, but he quickly turned his attention to the three men that entered the room.

Tsuna tried not to stare at them. They were all tall, but the gaunt blonde man towered over the other two. On top of that, it looked like he was on death’s door. He fidgeted in the hospital bed, clenching and unclenching his fingers around the blanket. He could feel the Vongola rings warm around his middle and pinky fingers slightly in response, as if Natsu was trying to comfort him.

Then, the man in the trench coat cleared his throat. “I’m Detective Tsukauchi. These two are teachers at U.A. High: Aizawa,” he gestured to the man with black hair and blank, exhausted expression, “and All Might.” Tsuna couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows as he gestured to the gaunt blonde man. English might not be strong suit, but the man didn’t look anything like an “All Might.” If anything, he felt the most cautious of Aizawa. His Intuition was still telling him to be careful, and when Aizawa looked at it, it flared that he was strong. He got no such reaction from All Might or Detective Tsukauchi.

“How are you feeling, young man?” All Might asked, his voice gentle and kind. It calmed Tsuna somewhat.

“U-um. I’m … okay? I’m just … really confused?” Tsuna’s eyes darted to each man’s face before he glanced down at his lap again.

“To be honest, so are we,” Detective Tsukauchi chimed in, taking out a small notebook. “We took the liberty of looking at your ID, and things don’t quite match up.”

“S-sorry, what do you mean?” Tsuna kept his eyes averted. It was his current student ID, but If he’d been sent into the future then … did his ID even have the year on it? He didn’t think it did, but …

“Well,” the detective said, scribbling something. “The issue is … we can’t find you in any records. There is no Sawada Tsunayoshi from Namimori. You’re not on any census or in the Quirk registry.”

“I … _what?”_ Tsuna’s gaze shot back up to the detective and then to the other two men. He expected them to find him in some record from ten years ago and be confused, but not … this. And what was that word? Quirk? That was the second time it had come up. Obviously it was something important, but … what? “That’s … that’s not possible! I-I mean, I … I exist, you know?! I have parents and I’ve gone to school all my life and …”

“Let’s start there, then,” Detective Tsukauchi said, tapping his pen against his notebook. “Your parents – what are their names?”

“My mom’s given name is Nana, and, uh, my dad’s is Iemitsu.”

“Your school?” 

“Namimori High School. Oh, and ... I-I went to Namimori Middle School, too.”

“What is your Quirk?”

Tsuna blinked. “Um?” The three men stared at him expectantly. “Do you mean like … my hobby? O-or, uh … ?” 

“Amnesia?” Aizawa muttered, glancing at his companions. Tsuna frowned. 

“No, young man, your Quirk! If you don’t have one, that’s nothing to be ashamed of, either!” All Might looked like he was trying his best to keep upbeat, but he couldn’t fool Tsuna’s Intuition – he was worrying them all and saying the wrong thing. Whatever a Quirk was, it was important. He didn’t have any idea what to say, and these were strangers, but he hadn’t felt any direct threat from them. Besides – he had his gear right there if things went south. 

“No, I, uh … Sorry …” Tsuna scratched the back of his head. Honesty was going to have to be the best policy. “I have no idea what you mean by ‘Quirk.’”

“Tsukauchi?” Aizawa asked, turning to the detective and shifting his weight in the way Tsuna recognized as a fighter moving just in case they needed to jump into action. His grip on the blankets tightened, and he could feel his Flames just under his skin.

Said detective frowned, tapping his notebook with his pen again. “He hasn’t lied to us. He really doesn’t know what a Quirk is.” Tsuna frowned. How was Tsukauchi so certain while the other two looked like they didn’t believe him?

“Interesting,” Aizawa muttered into his scarf, his voice monotone.

“What does that mean, then?” All Might looked confused, but he was keeping his tone light.

“Sawada,” Detective Tsukauchi began, turning his attention back to Tsuna, who startled and sat up straight. “The nurse said you only remember the shadowy hand. She also said you mentioned something about a coffin?” 

“O-oh! That! I … uh …” Tsuna flushed, glancing away nervously again. “I-I mean, one time my, uh, one of my friends was messing around and I-I got … knocked out and woke up in a … a coffin … so  I … was just glad that it wasn’t something like that again?” It came out more like a question, but beyond some unreadable glances sent between the three men, they didn’t have much of a response. “I mean! I-it was fine! It wasn’t a big deal!” As soon as Tsuna tried to backpedal, his Intuition tugged in the direction of Detective Tsukauchi. What was that?

“Okay, setting that aside for now,” Detective Tsukauchi said, writing something in his notebook, “Namimori is smaller than Musutafu, sure, but it isn’t so small that you wouldn’t know what a Quirk is. Quirks are a worldwide phenomenon, and among the people I spoke to at the Namimori police station, there were at least three different people with physical Quirk manifestations. It’s impossible for you to not know what a Quirk is.” 

“Uh,” Tsuna began hesitantly, “but, I, uh … I really have no idea.”

“Right, and I believe you.” The detective nodded to Aizawa and All Might, then continued, “So that leaves us a couple of possibilities. Either you were hit by a Quirk that’s altered your memories or, somehow, you’ve actually never heard of Quirks. Unfortunately, we can’t run any tests because the residue of the villain’s Quirk that grabbed you is still on you.”

“W-what?! That shadow hand is s-still on me?!” Tsuna nearly jumped out of the bed looking over himself, terrified that he was going to see a shadow hand crawl out from under the covers or something. All Might laughed and stepped forward and put a heavy hand on Tsuna’s shoulder. He flinched away on instinct, glancing at his gloves on the bedside table, but his Hyper Intuition hadn’t gone off.

All Might looked vaguely sad as he withdrew his hand, but the expression was gone when Tsuna looked back up at him. “Not physically, no! The Quirk that hit you is called Far Reach – it’s a teleportation type that lets the user reach through space, but whatever’s grabbed is sent back if the Quirk is deactivated within 12 hours. We’ve already apprehended the villain, though.”

“W-wait,” Tsuna stammered, running a hand through his hair, trying his damnedest to process the mumbo-jumbo mess of words that just came out of the man’s mouth. “Uh, so, are you … are you saying that as long as this person turns off their ability, I, uh, I should be able to g-get back home?”

“Exactly, my boy!” All Might smiled and gave him a thumbs up. “And that’s why we didn’t want to run any tests on you yet. As long as that Quirk stays on you, theoretically it should be able to send you back. We wanted to give you some time to rest before going.”

“Actually!” Tsuna’s voice was too loud and too high for his liking, and he flinched, but he couldn’t contain it. His eyes lit up and he glanced between the three men. “I’d like to go now! Please!”

“We thought you’d say that,” Detective Tsukauchi said with a professional smile. “We’ll give you a moment to gather your things while we sign you out of the hospital. The nurse will be back in to take out that IV, alright?”

Tsuna nodded quickly, a jerky, too fast up-down. “T-thank you!” he called after the three as they turned back towards the door. So that was it … a Quirk must be some kind of ability. Not Flames, probably, but he’d seen enough weird shit that he didn’t question it too much. It made sense, though – somehow one of these Quirks had accidentally grabbed him. But it was fixable! It sounded easy enough, too. He just wanted to go home.

* * *

“The boy was knocked out and his friends put him in a coffin?” Aizawa’s tone was just as monotonous as ever, but his eyebrows were pinched together and All Might could see that he was displeased. 

“Sounds like bullying,” Tsukauchi said sadly, glancing over his notes, “and he lied about it not being a big deal. The nurse noted a good number of scars on his torso, too. There’s also his mental state to take into consideration.”

“For someone who was dragged here by a Quirk – something that he says he doesn’t know anything about – he took it all in stride,” All Might agreed with a downcast expression, looking at the floor. “It could be that he’s desensitized to trauma.”

“Or that it’s a ruse.” Aizawa raised an eyebrow when All Might and Tsukauchi looked at him. “We have to consider the possibility.” 

“We’ll keep it in mind,” Tsukauchi said, closing his notebook and slipping it into his coat pocket. “Let’s proceed carefully, then.”


	3. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, I seriously cannot believe how many of you guys are here! I sort of dropped off the face of the Earth after posting the first two chapters (two drastic job changes in quick succession will do that to ya) but two of my good friends are into BNHA/getting back into BNHA and I caught the bug again. 
> 
> First - thank you so much for all of your support! I'm so blown away! I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to respond to everyone's wonderful comments, but I will be working on those!
> 
> Second, I actually realized that I already had this chapter written. Who knew? I figured I might as well go ahead and post it and then try to ... remember where I was going with this story. ;;; 
> 
> Full disclaimer, I'm no longer completely caught up on BNHA and I'm super rusty so please ... be kind if - or more like when - you notice errors. o/
> 
> That's it for now! I'll keep poking at this story and who knows? Maybe I won't take, what, seven months? To post it LOL. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy! <3

The car ride to the police station was quiet.

 

Aizawa sat in the back next to Tsuna, who was very aware that they’d placed the person with the most combat ability (according to his Intuition) next to him, and that made him nervous. Well, that, and the fact that he couldn’t stop from looking out the window in amazement.

 

When they’d left the hospital, Tsuna had rounded the corner and nearly ran into a man with a snake head and he’d almost fainted. He let out a high-pitched yelp and tripped over himself and fell on his butt, and had only barely managed to stammer out the weakest apology he’d ever made. His face still burned. But now, in the car and driving through Musutafu, he had a safe view of the city at night. It must’ve been close to midnight, but there were still a fair number of people wandering the main road, and boy were they an interesting mix.

 

It was like Tsuna had been plunked down into some convention or some costume contest on Halloween. There were people with outlandish features _everywhere_ and honestly if not for the fact that Detective Tsukauchi, All Might, and Aizawa seemed just as confused by the whole situation as he was, he might think that Mukuro had trapped him in some weird illusion just to mess with him. “So …” Tsuna began nervously, playing with his mittens idly, “what exactly is a, uh … a Q-Quirk? Like a superpower or something?”

 

“Kind of,“ All Might replied when Aizawa looked decidedly uninterested in answering Tsuna’s question. “A Quirk is a special trait that eighty percent of the population possesses. It can be anything from controlling the wind to a super sense of smell to extra arms. Some people have two, depending on their parents, and of the twenty percent that are Quirkless, most of them are from older generations.”

 

“Uh, okay,” Tsuna said slowly, trying to wrap his head around it. He’d read his fair share of manga and American comic books, so the idea wasn’t unimaginable, just … unrealistic and impossible? “Why are people just walking around, then?” he muttered, watching at someone with bat wings wait at a crosswalk when the car stopped at a red light. “That guy – he could just fly, right?”

 

“There are laws in place to prevent the use of Quirks in public.” This time, Detective Tsukauchi answered. “Those who use their Quirks for evil are villains, and those who uphold the law and fight villains are heroes. Besides, that man’s Quirk may be something completely unrelated to his wings. In fact, his wings may not be able to support his weight. Many people have physical differences completely unrelated to their Quirk.”

 

“… S-seriously?” Tsuna glanced out the window again. Heroes and villains? Was he in some kind of comic book? Well, wait – that meant that he was definitely a villain. The mafia was definitely not heroic. ... Right? At least in the eyes of the public? The Vongola were honorable, but this place seemed so … black and white. He wasn’t sure he liked it.

 

“We’re here,” Detective Tsukauchi announced a moment later, pulling into the small parking lot of the police station. Tsuna noticed how his door was locked on the outside, and how Aizawa opened it for him.

 

He followed the detective into the station, his grip tight on the straps of his school bag, and this time he managed to avoid yelping or falling when he saw the officer with a cat head who greeted them. “Oh, you’re here!” the officer said with a salute. “The villain is in holding, along with the evidence you asked for.”

 

“Thanks, Sansa,” Detective Tsukauchi said with a nod, leading them into the back of the station. Tsuna was still glancing around, half in curiosity, and half because Reborn would’ve told him to be alert and make sure he memorized where the doors and windows were before being led into a back room.

 

Aizawa nudged him when he took a moment too long to follow. “Come on.”

 

“S-sorry!” Tsuna squeaked, then hurried after the detective and All Might.

 

They stopped in front of a door, and Detective Tsukauchi glanced at Tsuna. All Might moved off towards the viewing room. Apparently, he wouldn’t be joining them. “The villain in here is the one who grabbed you. Let us do the talking, okay? With luck, you’ll be back home in no time.” He gave Tsuna a small smile.

 

Tsuna nodded. “I-I understand!” He was far too excited at the prospect of going home to disobey. He was already looking forward to the wild story he’d have to tell. Gokudera would probably launch into something about aliens and alternate timelines. He just hoped that the bomber wasn’t being too hard on Shouichi and Spanner.

 

Detective Tsukauchi examined Tsuna’s expression for a moment longer, then nodded and pushed the door open. Tsuna swallowed harshly before stepped in after him with Aizawa following closely behind. His imagination was going into overdrive. What would the villain look like? Like some American comic book villain with a mask? Maybe someone with demon horns or red eyes or –

 

In the chair in the center of the room sat an attractive, but completely normal looking young woman. She had tanned skin, jet-black hair with an undercut, and a painful looking black eye. Her arms were bound and encased with some kind of white colored restraint Tsuna had never seen before, and she had a collar of the same material around her neck. Comparatively, the chain around her ankle looked rather tame. “So,” she began with a small smile and airy tone despite the circumstances, “he’s the reason why I’m still here, then?”

 

“Unfortunately,” Detective Tsukauchi said in an even tone, opening up an evidence bag on the table in the middle of the room and setting a bundle of yen down opposite the woman. “We’ve also brought this to make sure you do it properly. This is your last chance to cooperate.”

 

“But if not, that’s why Eraserhead’s here, yeah?” The woman tossed her head, getting some of the bangs out of her eyes. _Eraserhead?_ “Fine. I’ll play along. Didn’t mean to grab the kid – I was trying to bring my companions through. I’m not a child kidnapper.”

 

Tsuna blinked. Just like that? He glanced up at Aizawa, but his expression was the same blank look that it had been since Tsuna woke up.

 

“Good.” Detective Tsukauchi nodded to Tsuna, then. “You have everything on your person, Sawada?”

 

“Y-yes!”

 

“Let’s just do it already,” the woman said, “my arms are starting to cramp. I’d rather have you give me the suppressants and get me out of this thing, honestly.”

 

The detective nodded, then walked over and undid the collar around the woman’s neck. She sighed, rolled her neck, and then looked at Tsuna. “Alright. Sorry ‘bout the surprise, kid. Bye.”

 

Dark purple rings of light appeared around her irises, and Tsuna noticed that the stack of yen disappeared with a flash of purple light. He felt a pop of static and flinched, but otherwise … nothing happened. “Um …?”

 

“Weird,” the woman said cheerfully. She focused again and her eyes lit up, but nothing happened. “Huh. My Quirk’s definitely gone from him. Check if you don’t believe me, Eraserhead.”

 

Aizawa grumbled something and Tsuna glanced up at him. _He_ was Eraserhead? What a … weird name. He seemed to stare intently at the woman for a long moment, his eyes glowing red and hair lifting slightly in an invisible wind, then looked back at Tsuna. “… She’s right,” he said, and it sounded like it almost pained him to say. “There is currently no Quirk affecting him at the moment.”

 

“H-hold on,” Tsuna cut in, figuring that it would be fine if he talked now. “Are you saying that you can’t send me back home? B-but I thought …”

 

“Yeah, I don’t know either,” the woman chimed in. “Never had this happen before.” Her eyes weren’t glowing any more, but her cheerful smile seemed to be hiding a sharp curiosity … something with a dangerous edge. Or at least that’s what Tsuna’s Intuition was telling him. He shivered slightly.

 

There was a moment of silence before Detective Tsukauchi nodded and put the collar back on the woman, then headed towards the door. “Alright. I’ll make note of your cooperation.”

 

Just like that? Tsuna nearly tripped trying to follow the detective, panic beginning to swell in his chest. “W-wait, but I –“

 

“Wait until we're outside.” Aizawa nudged him again, making Tsuna stumble through the door that Detective Tsukauchi held open for them.

 

As soon as the door clicked shut behind them and All Might began to round the corner, Tsuna couldn’t hold it in any more. “Wait! What does that mean?! That woman – she, she dragged me here, right? S-so she should be able to send me home! She could’ve been lying, I –“

 

“Calm down, my boy,” All Might said, his voice steady and calm as it cut into Tsuna’s panicking. He glanced behind Tsuna to Detective Tsukauchi. “She wasn’t lying, was she?”

 

“Unfortunately not,” the detective said firmly.

 

“But how do you _know_?!” Tsuna was at his wits end, glancing back at the door to the holding cell anxiously.

 

“My Quirk,” Detective Tsukauchi said, and Tsuna froze. “It’s called ‘Human Lie Detector.’ It’s exactly what it sounds like.”

 

“O-oh,” Tsuna said lamely, still frozen. So that was why his Intuition had gone off when he lied back in the hospital. That was … bad, actually. That was really bad. What had he even said so far?

 

“So, with all that being said,” the detective continued, fixing Tsuna with a steady gaze. He didn’t like it, and fidgeted under the stare of the three men. “Can you think of any reason why her Quirk didn’t send you back?”

 

 _The time machine._ Shit. Tsuna fumbled with his words for a moment. It wasn’t like he could tell them that – then they’d ask why he was building a time machine and he couldn’t very well say _oh, you know. Mafia stuff._ “U-um, well …” He needed to be careful, if Detective Tsukauchi could detect lies. It was highly likely that Flames didn’t exist here, wherever here was, and if they did, they’d be just as hidden as it was back home, and telling random strangers (especially ones that may or may not have superpowers) that he was in the mafia was never something he wanted to do. Besides, the bigger issue was that in such a black and white world, he was sure he’d be thrown in jail or something. Then he’d _never_ get home. Tsuna had to avoid that at all costs.

 

“The uh, hand … shadow hand thing came out of this … machine? That my friends built.” His Intuition started to flare. _Choose your words carefully_ , it said. “I-I, uh, I have no idea how it works. The machine, I mean! I didn’t even know they were building it. I-I was just, uh, there, and they turned it on, and then, um, there was a-a lot of wind and that hand came out of the machine and … yeah. T-that’s all I remember.” Tsuna was sweating and fidgeting, he knew he was, and he tried to suppress it, but the best he got was condensing it to playing with his Vongola rings. He felt safer just touching them.

 

“I-I’m sorry!” Tsuna said quickly, looking down at his shoes and trying to figure out how to salvage the situation. He’d worked himself up way too much and he was kicking himself. “I-I’m … I’m just really, uh, really nervous – I-I mean, I thought … I just … um …” His voice was small as he trailed off. “I just want to go home …”

 

It was one thing to be trapped in the future. It was terrifying, but his aged-up friends were still his friends. He’d had the support his older self had worked to build. A base. A team. Trust. People with him who understood. Now? Tsuna wasn’t _just_ in what was most likely another time – he was in some other _dimension, probably._ Could the time machine even get him back? _Shit –_

 

“Calm down,” All Might said again, his voice still as even as it had been moments before. “We’re not just going to abandon you, young Sawada.”

 

“Agreed,” Detective Tsukauchi said with a small smile. Tsuna felt a bit better and he took a deep, stuttering breath. “Do you know what your friends’ machine was supposed to do?”

 

“N-not really,” Tsuna said cautiously, trying to figure out what was safe to say. “Spanner – uh, one of my friends – he said it was um … a safety measure?” That much should be fine …

 

“So it was some kind of security device?”

 

“I-I don’t really know how it works,” Tsuna said, wincing when he realized that he’d already said that. “He and Shouichi-kun never really … explained it to me … It just looked really complicated?” And that was a technical truth – the whole machine, like most of what the pair made, went way over Tsuna’s head.

 

Detective Tsukauchi nodded, and then there was a beat of awkward silence.

 

“Well. That was insightful.” Aizawa was the one to break it. He looked decidedly less than thrilled. “Principal Nedzu told us to bring him back to U.A. if we couldn’t resolve this tonight.”

 

“Y-your school?” Tsuna flinched when he looked up and met Aizawa’s blank stare. “W-why?”

 

Aizawa sighed deeply and glared into this scarf. “We’re partially responsible. That woman used her Quirk so carelessly because she was being pursued by our students, who couldn’t restrain her in time.”

 

Tsuna paled. Just what kind of students were they?! What did they teach at that school?!

 

All Might noticed and gave Tsuna a big, proud smile that somehow didn’t reassure him. “Don’t worry! They’re all heroes in training. They have their provisional licenses, too!”

 

“You can tell him about it later,” Aizawa said with a yawn, heading back towards the door of the police station. “It’s late – or early, now, I guess – and this was not how I wanted to spend my Friday night.”


End file.
